Fallout South Carolina
by Crusherboy93
Summary: The United States is gone, and place is a wasteland, created by nuclear fallout during the Great War. 234 years later, A Wasteland Survivor escorts a girl to new Charleston to reunite her with her uncle. will the Wasteland Survivor keep the little girl alive long enough to get to New Charleston, or will they surcum to the creatures that the nuclear fallout created?
1. Chapter 1

War, war never changes. That's what everyone said before the world went to hell. On October 23rd, 2077 at around 9:40 A.M., the whole world ended in Nuclear Fire. The Great War lasted for about two hours. When the war ended, nothing was the same. All countries were wiped out, with just about 10 million people surviving. Most of the people in the United States were either killed off by Radiation, Turned into ghouls, survived the Nuclear Fallout on the planet's surface, or in huge underground Vaults created by the Vault-Tec Corporation back before the Great War, but nothing could bring the old world back. At least, that's what my father told me. Two-hundred and thirty-four years since the Great War, small settlements began to pop up across what was once the United States, like my home town of New Anderson created from what was once Anderson, South Carolina. The town was a thriving settlement until Raiders attacked it and killed everyone, I alone survived. I now walk along a road, all alone." That was the entry put into a man's daily journal as he sat down in an old Red Rocket Gas station. The man then pulled out a bottle of Nuka-Cola and took a sip of it. The man then put the Nuka-Cola back in his bag and as he was about to leave, he heard something outside.

As he drew his 10 MM Pistol, John looked over the counter to see a child, a young girl, she sat down on a bench outside, her back towards the main building. He then put his gun away, stood up, and said, "Hey kid." The young girl turned around and held a pipe Gun, pointed at the man. The man then held his hands in the air as he said, "Take it easy kid, I'm not going to hurt you." The girl then said, "That's what the last person said to me before he tried to kill me." The man then said, "Well, I'm different, what's your name kid?" the girl kept her Pipe gun pointed at the man and she said, "My name is Claire, what's your name?" The man walked out of the Red Rocket Gas station and said, "My name is John, where are your folks?" Claire then said, "Dead, killed by Raiders when they attacked my home." John replied, "I know that feeling, I lost my family when my hometown was attacked and turned into a town for Raiders." Claire then lowered her Gun and said, "Sorry, I… I didn't know." John nodded his head and said as he slowly lowered his hands, "It's alright Claire. Where do you plan to go?" Claire told John that she was going to a nearby settlement. John then said, "The only closest Settlement to here is Calhoun Falls." Claire nodded her head and she said, "I'm trying to get to New Charleston." John then said, "That's over one hundred and seventy miles, why do you need to go to New Charleston?" Claire then said, "My parents told me if I was ever to end up on my own to go there and speak to a man by the name of Mason Brown."

"Mason Brown?!" shouted John. Claire nodded her head and said, "You know him?" John then nodded his head and he said, "Mason Brown is a scheming, conniving, good for nothing piece of Shit, why on Nuclear Earth would you want to see him?" Claire crossed her arms and said, "Because he's my Dad's brother, my last name is Brown." John was silent for a few moments and he said, "Oh, sorry Kid." Claire shrugged it off and said, "Doesn't bother me, I just need to get enough supplies to last me a few more days until I get to another settlement after Calhoun Falls." As Claire was getting her small bag ready, John said, "Want me to come with you, I need to head to Calhoun falls anyway." Claire looked at John, shrugged her shoulders and said, "Sure, why not, only thing I got is this Pipe Gun." John smiled and pulled out his gun. When Claire saw John's weapon, she said, "You had that on you this whole time, why didn't you shoot me?" John looked at Claire and he said, "Because I lost my sister, who was about your size, when the raiders attack New Anderson." Claire smiled and said, "Well then, let's get going." John smiled, grabbed his own bag and ran to catch up with Claire.

Along the way to Calhoun Falls, John asked Claire if she even knew how to shoot, Claire hung her head and said, "No, not really." John then stopped and said, "You had a Pipe Gun and you didn't know how to shoot it?" Claire nodded her head and said, "I didn't know that you had a gun on you so I hoped that if I bluffed you about knowing how to shot, I could get supplies from you." John then laughed and said, "Alright, let me teach you real quick." John then gathered up a few tin cans and placed them along an old fence and told Claire to pull out her Pipe gun. She did, and John said, "Alright, aim your gun at the first tin can." Claire followed John's instructions and John then said, "Now pull the trigger." Claire followed John's instructions and pulled the trigger, the pipe pistol shot back and almost hit Claire in the face, but John caught it before it did hit Claire. John then said, "Well, that recoil is proof, this was the first time you ever shot that gun, am I right?" Claire hung her head again and she said, "Yes." John nodded his head and said, "Alright, this time, use two hands and try again." Claire nodded her head and held the Pipe pistol with two hands and fired it at the tin can, knocking it off the fence. John then said, "Perfect, now, do it again with the rest of the cans." Claire nodded her head and took at the second can, fired at it and knocked it off. Claire then did the same thing with the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth cans. John then said, "Not bad Claire, a little more practice and you will be handle rifles, now let's go." Claire nodded her head and the two continued on their way.

Suddenly, a shot flew passed John's head. John then said, "GET TO COVER!" John and Claire then got to cover behind of an old Pre-war truck. John pulled out his Pistol, handed it to Claire, placed two clips on the ground and told her, "Stay here and cover me, the shot came from the abandoned building's top floor, far left window. Stay here until I call your name, if you need to reload push this button, the clip in the gun will drop and you can put one of these clips in, to load it, pull back from here and it will load the first round into the chamber." Claire nodded her head and fired three rounds at the window John told her to fire at, causing the shooter to take cover, and allowing John to move up to a tree closer to the building. John then pulled out a combat knife. John whistled to Claire to cover him again. Claire nodded her head and opened fire again at the window, allowing John to get right to the door to the building. John knocked three times and the door opened, causing a gunman to slowly walk out. John then grabbed the gun he had and slit the gunmen's throat. John then used the gun to take out another gunman coming down the stairs.

As John walked up to the second floor, another gunman rounded the corner and got shot in the head by John. John then grabbed the rifle the man he just shot, put it on his back and continued clearing the gunmen out of the building. As Claire was about to reload, John cleared all the gunmen on the second floor and got to the top floor, where he saw the person who was taking shots at him and Claire. John then pulled out a grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it at the shooter. The shooter looked down at the grenade and said, "Holy…" but the grenade exploded and he was killed before he could finish his sentence. John then made sure that there were no more gunmen, when he saw that there was no more, he called Claire to join him. Claire grabbed the extra clip and empty clip and she ran to the building and got inside when John was coming down the stairs. Suddenly, another gunman came up from the basement and said, "What the hell happened here?" John then took back his pistol and shot the gunman in the head. Claire was startled at what John just did. Claire then said, "Couldn't you have just let him go?" John looked at her and said, "Claire, in this world, you do what you must to survive. Besides, these people are Gunners, they wouldn't let us go. Now go up the stairs and loot the bodies on the second floor, I'll take of these bodies and the bodies on the top floor." Claire was silent, but did as she was told and she went upstairs to loot the bodies. As John looted the body of the person he just shot, he found a key with a label that read, "Prisoner cell key." John then looked at the door the man came out of and shouted to Claire, "Claire, get back down here." Claire followed John's orders and got back down to John. John handed Claire his 10 MM pistol again and laid down all the rifles he had except for one. John then said, "Stay behind me, cover our rear." Claire nodded her head and the two headed down the stairs to the basement.

When they arrived, John saw a person laying down in a cell. John immediately walked over to the cell as he told Claire to cover the stairs. John then said, "Hello, are you alright?" The person turned their head and John saw that the person was a woman. John opened the cell door and walked over to the woman and helped her sit up and lean against the wall. John then reached into his bag and pulled out some food that he cooked before he met Claire and gave it to the woman. John then said, "What's your name?" the woman slowly ate the food and she said, "Ayana, my name is Ayana Batchelder, but you can call me Zoe." John then said, "Well Zoe, my name is John, the little girl at the stairs is Claire." Zoe looked at the stairway and saw Claire with John's Pistol. John then helped Rachel to her feet and walk out of the cell. John then saw a chair to sit Zoe down in. after he sat Zoe down, he saw a light switch on the wall. After he flicked it, the lights in the basement all came on. John then saw on a table on the opposite end of the room what he thought was an old Vault suit. Opun further inspection, John realized that it was a Vault Suit, from Vault 140. John then looked at Zoe and said, "Is this yours Zoe?" Zoe nodded her head and John said, "You're a Vault Dweller?" Zoe nodded her head again and she said, "I'm from Vault 140 all right." John then said, "Is it near here?" Zoe shook her head and said, "Vault 140 is near Northlake." John then said, "That's not far from New Anderson." Zoe nodded her head and said, "Raiders tried to attack the vault, they failed to get deep in, but they took me prisoner and sold me to this group of gunners. I've been held here for days, I never got the chance to say thank you." John then said, "Don't mention it, I'm taking Claire to Calhoun Falls, would you like to join us?" John then extended his hand to Zoe, who smiled, took his hand and agreed to go with John and Claire to Calhoun Falls.

Back upstairs, John and Claire waited for Zoe to come out of the basement. When she did, she was in her Vault Dweller suit and wearing some of the gunner's armor that John gave her. Zoe then grabbed one of the Rifles John had leaned against the wall. John then asked Zoe, "Do you know how to shoot?" Zoe nodded her head and John said, "Alright, let's get going team." Claire and Zoe nodded their heads and they continued making their way to Calhoun Falls. Along the way, they came across a Deathclaw. John had Zoe protect Claire and the two of them set the Deathclaw up in a Crossfire. The Deathclaw didn't know which side to target and was quickly taken out. John then walked up to the Deathclaw and started to cut chunks from it. Claire then asked John, "Why are you doing that". John replied, "We can cook the meat from this Deathclaw to make food, we'll need it to sustain us to survive the trip to Calhoun Falls." Zoe then said, "Is that really necessary?" John then looked back at Zoe and said, "Zoe, I know that you're use to the food in your Vault. But on the surface, we cook what we can to eat to sustain our strength." Claire and Zoe looked at each other, then back at John and he said, "What, Calhoun Falls is still a few days walking distance from our current location, we'll need to eat something." Claire then said, "But Deathclaw Meat?"

"I make a good Deathclaw Stew, I have purified Water, some Carrots, and some Mutatoes." Claire then said, "I am kind of hungry right now, and the sun is setting." John then said, "Alright, Let's find a good spot to make camp." Claire and Zoe nodded their heads and the three of them searched for a place to spend the night, and they found an old military checkpoint made from a small radio station. As John made Deathclaw Stew, Zoe and Claire set up the sleeping bags and barricades set up for defense. After John got done cooking the Deathclaw Stew, he poured three bowls, one for Claire, one for Zoe, and one for himself. As they ate, Claire said, "I will admit, I thought that this was going to be disgusting, but this is actually pretty good, thanks John." John smiled and said, "No problem Claire, I'm just glad people appreciate it." Zoe then said, "How many people have you made this for?" John looked at Zoe, then at his bowl, then back at Zoe and said, "No one ever wanted to try it, you two are actually the first two people to ever try my Deathclaw Stew." Zoe then said, "It's really good, I don't know why people didn't want to try it." John then said, "A rumor was spreading around my hometown that I was using Human meat bits in the stew and just named it Deathclaw stew to cover." Zoe and Claire looked at each other, then at their bowls of stew, causing John to say, "You two saw me take the meat from the Deathclaw!" Zoe then said, "Relax John, we know that you used Deathclaw meat." John smiled and said, "Thank you, now you two get some rest, I'll keep watch." When Zoe asked John, "Why don't we take turns on watch?" John told Zoe, "I'm fine, you'll need you're rest."

Zoe said, "Alright." Zoe and Claire then went to sleep as John kept watch. As the night went on, John pulled out his daily Journal and wrote, "After I took a break at the Red Rocket Gas Station, I ran into a little girl named Claire and she told me that she held me at gun point with a Pipe Gun. I showed her that I meant no harm. She told lost her family to Raiders, as did I, she told me that she's heading to Calhoun Falls to get more supplies to last her to the next settlement. Her final destination is New Charleston to get to her Uncle Mason Brown, the scumbag. I decided to tag along, had business to do in Calhoun Falls anyway. Along the way, I found out that she didn't even know how to shoot, so I had to teach her. After teaching Claire how to shoot, we came under fire by some gunners in an old abandoned building. I had Claire cover me while I made my way to the building. I took out the gunners. I could tell Claire never killed a man before, when I shot a gunner in the head, she was afraid of blood. As we looted the bodies, I found a key for a cell in the building's basement where we found a woman Vault Dweller named Zoe, told us that her Vault was attacked by Raiders. The Vault Dwellers fended off the Raiders, but they captured her and sold her to the Gunners that we killed. Claire and I then found out that Zoe was from Vault 140. I then offered Zoe to join Claire and me on our journey to Calhoun Falls, she accepted and she took a rifle from the dead Gunners. As we continued on our journey, we ran across a Deathclaw, which Zoe and I dealt with. I then took some meant chunks from the Deathclaw to make Deathclaw stew, the three of us then set up camp for the night in an old Radio Station turned into a Military Checkpoint, I fixed them some Deathclaw stew as they set up the beds and defenses." John then heard Zoe say, "What are you writing about?" John looked at Zoe and said, "It's my Daily Journal, I write things that happen to me during the day in it." Zoe then walked over to John and he showed her all of his previous entries, from the Raider attack on his hometown of New Anderson to his encounter of A Behemoth sized Deathclaw. Zoe then said, "You fought a Behemoth sized Deathclaw?" John nodded his head and said, "I wounded it too, took one of its claws a souvenir, but I lost it before we met." Zoe then said, "Well, I think I should be on watch now, get some rest John." John nodded his head and went to sleep.

As John slept, he dreamt that he was back in New Anderson, he was in his home laying on his bed when his Father came into his house and said, "John, Get your rifle, Raiders are attacking!" John got out of his bed, grabbed his gun, and ran with his dad to the town's defensive wall and took part at keeping the Raiders back. But the Raider leader had a Missile Launcher and shot a missile at part of the wall, destroying it. Raiders then swarmed in through the recently made gap and they took out people before they could fire a shot. John's father told him to run to their house and use their emergency tunnel and blow it behind him to keep the raiders from following him. John told his father that he wasn't going to abandon them and his father told John, "Son, you're not abandoning us, you're surviving. Now GO!" John wasn't going to argue with his father and ran to his house and got into the emergency Tunnel and as he made his way through the tunnel, he light all of the explosives and blew up the tunnel. John then woke up from the dream by being the sound of bullets and being shaken up by Zoe and she said, "We have Raiders coming in, get up!" John got up, grabbed the Rifle by him, and took up a spot at a window and began to open fire at the Raiders moving in, Zoe covered the front door and Claire covered the other window. The raider in charge of the attack then had his men take cover. He then said, "Attention people in the old Military Checkpoint, we're here for the Little Girl, you two can walk away from this alive, just give us the girl and we'll leave." John looked at Claire and asked her, "Why do these raiders want you?" Claire shrugged her shoulders and said, "I didn't do anything to piss them off." John then shouted out the window, "Why do you want the little girl?" The Raider leader replied, "That little shit took 200 Caps from us, we want our money back." John and Zoe then looked at Claire and she said, "They were charging 225 Caps for a container of Purified Water, they can be bought at Calhoun Falls for 50 Caps, they were ripping me off." John then said, "So he's telling the truth, you stole 200 caps from these guys." Claire then said, "Actually, I found a cap stash in a trunk of an old prewar truck, I didn't know that it belonged to them." John then asked the Raider Leader, "What if we give you the caps back instead of the girl?" The Raider Leader then said, "Either the girl comes out or you all die." John looked at Claire and asked, "Was the truck near their main base?" Claire then shook her head and said, "As soon as I rounded the corner I saw the truck and the Caps stash." John then looked back out the window and he said, "NO DEAL!" Claire was shocked to hear John say that, and Zoe said, "What are you doing, she's a thief!" John then said, "She's also a little kid, besides if the truck was nowhere near their base, she had full right to take those caps."

John then took out a grenade, pulled the pin and threw it at the Raider Leader, it detonated and took out a few Raiders and wounded the Raider Leader. The Raider Leader then said, "Augh, you'll pay for that!" John then shot the Raider Leader in the head, putting him out of his misery. John then told Zoe and Claire to stay inside the Radio Station and he hopped through the window that he was defending and he killed the two Raiders still on his side of the Station. John then ran over to the other side to engage the Raiders on the other side. As he ducked from cover to cover, John took out more and more Raiders until there was one raider left and he bolted. John then took aim at the last raider and before he took the shot, he was stopped by Zoe. The raider then rounded a corner and John said, "Are you happy now, he's going to get more Raiders and return to try and kill us."

"Not if we leave now and get to Calhoun Falls, their defenses are too tough for raiders to get through." Replied Zoe. John looked at her and said, "I don't know what you were taught in your precious Vault, but on the surface, it's either kill or be killed." John was then silent for a few moments before he said, "Let's get going, Calhoun Falls isn't coming to us." John, Zoe, and Claire then gathered their bags and all the supplies they each could carry and made their way to Calhoun Falls. As they continued walking, they came across a traveling caravan and they traded some supplies for some ammunition for the rifles. After completing the trade, the three companions continued on their way to Calhoun Falls. After two days of traveling, they arrived at was once Calhoun Falls, now a bunch of ruins. John then said, "Ready yourselves you two." Zoe and Claire pulled out their weapons, John's pistol for Claire and a rifle for Zoe. As the three of them slowly entered the destroyed town, they walked by the destroyed defenses. John then said, "These Machine Gun Turrets were completely ripped out of their spots, no Raider can do this to these type of machine gun turrets, only one thing can do this though. Super Mutants attack here, let's look for survivors." Zoe nodded her head and went off to search for survivors, while John and Claire stuck together to search of survivors themselves. As noon came, John and Claire were about to head back to find Zoe when John heard someone call for help. John and Claire then ran to where the cries for help were coming from and they saw a settler from the town trying to help what looked like a wrinkled person out from rubble. Claire was scared and thought it was a feral Ghoul, but John calmed her down and said, "It's alright Claire, he's not a Feral Ghoul. Not yet at least" John then walked over to the two and using all of his strength, lifted the rubble that the Ghoul was trapped under and the other man pulled him away to safety. John then slowly placed the rubble back on the ground to treat the ghoul. John then pulled out a Stimpack and said, "Alright, hold him still." The one guy nodded his head and held him down as John injected the ghoul with the Stimpack. The ghoul then said, in his scratched up voice, "Thank you, I thought I was a goner." John then said, "Don't mention it, and now let's get you up." John and the settler helped the ghoul get up. John then asked the setter and the Ghoul, "What happened to Calhoun Falls?"

"Super Mutants happened." Replied the settler. John then said, "So that confirms what I said when we first got here, Super Mutants attack the town." The Settler nodded his head and said, "Yeah, they killed most of the people and Brahmin here, gathered up the bodies, and headed to the North-West." John then said, "Calhoun Falls state Park, that's the only place North-West of here, I went exploring there a bit, it's a Super Mutant Haven." The settler then said, "We've been living next to a Super Mutant Haven all this time and we didn't even know it?!" John then said, "I guess they got tired of people living near their home and attacked the town." Claire then said, "Great, what are we going to do about supplies?" The Settler then said, "I have a few supplies in a building not too far from here, I can let you take what you two need." John then asked for their names, and the Settler said, "I'm Richard, this ghoul here is Frank." John then said, "Well, I'm John, this is Claire." Claire waved her hand at Richard and Frank, who waved back. John then said, "We have another person with us, her name is Ayana Batchelder, but she lets us call her Zoe." Just then, Zoe came around with another survivor of Calhoun Falls, a teenage boy. Zoe then said, "I guess you found other survivors." John nodded his head and said, "Is he the only one that you found?" Zoe nodded her head and said, "This is Tommy, he was hiding behind his father's ammo stand when the Super Mutants attacked and killed his Father and Mother." John then walked over to Tommy, place one hand on Tommy's shoulder and said, "I'm sorry son, I know what it's like to lose Family." Tommy nodded his head and said, "Thank you sir." John then looked at Zoe and said, "Zoe, these two are Richard and Frank. Richard introduced himself, so did Frank. Zoe waved hello and John said, "I take it that Tommy told you what happened?" Zoe nodded her head and John said, "Well, Richard told us about a stash of supplies that we can take what we want, but let's look around town to see if there is any supplies we can salvage." Everyone nodded their heads and they all spread out to find any salvageable supplies. After a few minutes of searching, they got back together, they placed everything they found in a pile.

"So some Mutatoes, a couple rounds of Ammunition, two grenades, a Baseball Bat, and a Pre-war Sniper Rifle." Said John. Frank then said, "That Sniper Rifle was the Mayor's Personal Weapon, I guess he tried to take out the Super Mutants from a far." John then said, "Problem is, without knowing the type of ammunition it takes, we can never use it." That was when Richard said, "That's not a problem, I know for a fact that the Mayor kept a supply of ammunition for his rifle in his office." John then said, "You lead the way Richard, I'll go with you. Zoe, stay here with Claire. Claire, don't go anywhere." Claire and Zoe nodded their heads. John then handed Tommy and Frank two rifles and said, "Keep them safe." Frank and Tommy then nodded their heads as well. John then pulled put his Pistol and told Richard to lead the way. After John and Richard let, Frank walked over to Zoe and said, "He likes to give orders, doesn't he?" Zoe looked at Frank and said, "He freed me from Gunners after I was sold to them by Raiders, he's saved Claire and me from Raiders, and he even saved you from death. We owe him." Frank then said, "Damn it, you're right, and I always repay my Debt."

Back with John and Richard, they just got to the City's Town Hall. John loaded his Pistol, looked at Richard and said, "You ready for this?" Richard nodded his head and said, "As Ready as I'll ever be." John nodded his head and the two of them walked inside the Town Hall. When they arrived, they saw the place was a mess. Richard then said, "The Mayor's Office is on the Second Floor." John nodded his head and said, "You take point, I'll watch our six." Richard nodded his head and the two of them made their way to the Mayor's Office. Along the way, they past a Pre-war Skeleton, dressed in woman's attire. John then said, "Must have died while on the Job." Richard nodded his head and said, "Frank used to know her, he's told me that she was a good person." John then said, "So Frank's over two hundred years old, and from here." Richard nodded his head and said, "He's seen a lot of friends come and go." John then said, "So have I, but let's focus on the Mission Objective." Richard nodded his head and they continued their march to the Mayor's Office. When they arrived, they saw that the Office was in decent shape. John then said, "With the bottom floor looking like it did, I honestly didn't expect this to be like it is." Richard nodded his head and said, "Yeah, few people were allowed to be in here, I was one of the lucky few. Come on, it's over here." John followed Richard to a bookcase and the two of them pushed it aside to reveal a Big Safe. Richard then said, "This should have the ammo for the rifle." John then saw a key pad and said, "Looks like we'll need a code." Richard then pushed four keys into the key pad, 2245, and the door unlocked. John then asked Richard, "How did you know the combination?" Richard replied, "It's easy, I helped the Mayor open the safe the day we resettled Calhoun Falls, we reprogramed it to be a code that was easy to remember, the first digits we took from the year Calhoun Falls was resettle, 2200, the last two digits was the Population, 45 people." John then opened the door and saw the Ammunition that the sniper Rifle took, .50 Caliber rounds. John then said, "These will definitely come in handy." Richard nodded his head.

Back outside, John and Richard returned to the group and John said, "We'll need to move, those Super Mutants may come back." When Zoe Asked John where they were going to go, John said, "I know of a settlement to the North-East of here. It's a few days walking distance, but I don't think we have a lot of other options." Claire then said, "Why don't we just go east?" John told Claire, "Because the closest Settlement directly to the east is too far for our supplies to make it." Zoe then said, "Then I say we head to the settlement John's talking about." Frank and Richard were on board, so Tommy and Claire were out voted and the group then began walking to the settlement John was talking about, but he would soon realize that he made a grave mistake. As the group traveled, John saw something shine to his right, when he looked, he saw someone in Power Armor. He then told the group to get back. John then looked again and saw the person wearing Power Armor. Claire then moved closer to him and asked, "What's wrong John?" John looked at Claire, put a finger to his lips and whispered, "I just saw someone in Power Armor, and we can use it on our journey." Zoe then said, "Who are we going to get it if there's someone in there." John smiled and said, "It's simple, I'll sneak up behind him and take out his Fusion Core and when the person inside gets out, you're going to shoot him with the Sniper Rifle." Zoe nodded her head and John said, "No one else is too open fire unless I say Deathclaw, understand." Everyone nodded their heads and John made sure that the person in Power Armor wasn't looking and he bolted across to the other side. John then crept up to the person in Power Armor and he made sure that he stayed out of sights until he was close enough. Sneaking up behind the person in Power Armor, John grabbed the Fusion Core and bolt to behind Cover. As soon as the person got out of the Power Armor, Zoe shot the person in the head, which attracted other people nearby. John then took out one of his grenades, pulled the pin, and threw it at the people coming. The Explosion killed two people and John shouted, "DEATHCLAW!" As the people attacking John looked around for a Deathclaw, John's group opened fire at the attackers, taking the rest out. John then got up and said, "That went better than I expected." John's group then came out of hiding and walked up to him as he placed the Fusion Core back in the Power Armor. John then said, "Who wants it?" Zoe suggested that John take it because it was his plan, but John said, "But it was your shot that killed the person coming out, you should wear it." Claire then said, "John, if it wasn't for you and stopping us, we could have possibly died, you take the Armor." Everyone agreed and John said, "Alright, since it's unanimous, I'll take the Armor." John then opened the Power armor and stepped inside it. As the armor closed, John thought to himself, " _Haven't been in Power Armor since my days of serving the B.o.S., but I won't let my past define me now._ " As the suit finished closing, John said through the helmet, "It's a bit snugger in here than I thought. Now let's get to that settlement." Everyone nodded their heads and continued to the settlement John was talking about. After another two days of walking, John saw the settlement and said, "We're here." The group got to John and saw the settlement John was talking about. As John got out of the Power Armor, Zoe looked through Pre-war binoculars that she found along the way and said, "What's the symbol on the Flag?" Zoe then handed John the Binoculars and he looked through it and saw the flag he dreaded of seeing again, the Flag of the Brotherhood of Steel. John then said, "Oh no." When Claire asked John what was wrong, before John could even answer, several people with guns popped out from behind rocks, demanding that John's group drop their weapons and put their hands in the air. John then said, "They have us out gunned, do as he says." The small, surrounded group dropped their weapons and a person in Power Armor walked up to the group and said, "It's been a long time since I've seen you traitor." John then said, "Take off that helmet and let me look you in the eyes, George." The person in the Power Armor scuffed, but did as he was requested. He took his helmet off to reveal a man about John's Age. George then said, "You should have never come here John."

"Hang on, John do you know these people?" asked Claire. George then said, "You keeping them in the Dark Johnny Boy." John looked at Claire and said, "I will explain everything when we're out of this situation." John then looked back at George and said, "We're not staying, we just came here to get supplies and we'll be on our way." George then said, "Of course, you may get supplies, but first you must speak with Elder Torres first." John clenched his fist at the name, but he sighed and said, "Alright, I'll go speak with him." John then looked at his group and said, "You guys get us supplies, I'll meet you at the exit." John's group nodded their heads and they all headed back to the settlement.

When they got inside, John and George headed down one road while John's group headed down another with three Knights escorting John's group. As they headed to talk to Elder Torres, George said, "You were pretty stupid to come here John." John then said, "I thought that the Brotherhood of Steel was farther West of here, that's why we were heading here." George then said, "Doesn't matter, I told you that I would find you and bring you to Justice." John then said, "And I told you that I didn't do what I was accused." George then said, "Sure you didn't, shut up and keep moving." John was angry, but he kept his mouth shut. When George and John entered the main building that Elder Torres was using for his headquarters. When they arrived, John was forced to his knees. Just then, he heard another voice from his Past speak and the Voice said, "As Isaac Bashevis Singer once said, 'When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself.' That's what you did, Paladin Bertrand." John tried to attack Elder Torres but was stopped by George and another Paladin. Elder Torres then said, "Good Job Paladin Anderson, and you too Paladin Smith." John looked at the other Paladin and said, "Smith, as in Rebecca Smith?" Keeping one hand on John, the other Paladin reached for the helmet to reveal a woman and she said, "Hello Mentor, or should I say traitor." John then said, "I didn't betray you, I didn't betray the Brotherhood of Steel. The Brotherhood of Steel betrayed me. "

"The Brotherhood of Steel doesn't betray people." Said Elder Torres. Elder Torres then said, "You knew what you were doing when you committed your crime." John then said, "You see, that's why I ran off, you still don't believe me when I say that I didn't do it, I was framed." Elder Torres knelt down, grabbed John by the chin, forced John to look at him and he said, "Oh John, you kept telling yourself that so much you even believe it yourself." John then said, "All I came here for was supplies for my group and we'll be on our way." Elder Torres then got up and walked over to his desk. He then said, "Your group… isn't going anywhere, they'll be forced into service, the Monstrosity will be executed." John struggled to get out George's and Rebecca's Control as he said, "You can't do that, he's a human being!" Elder Torres quickly spun around and yelled, "That thing is no longer human, he is a monstrosity that the old Government created by technology." John then said, "You can't be seriously blaming the Old Government for the creation of Ghouls." Elder Torres replied, "We fired the first shots didn't we?"

"That was the Chinese who fired the first shots, I have read Military reports, and the reports say that the Chinese fired first." Replied John. Elder Torres then said, "Enough, take him away." George and Rebecca followed their Orders and took John to a holding Cell. On the way, John said to Rebecca, "After everything I taught you, you still fight for the brotherhood of Steel. I'm disappointed in you Rebecca." Rebecca then said, "Shut it traitor, when you left I had to keep our squad under control." Just then, they ran across the three knights that were escorting John's group and his group themselves. George then said, "Why isn't that Monstrosity killed? If you knights couldn't follow a single order, then I'll do it myself." George let go of John and pointed his rifle at Frank and was about to pull the trigger when suddenly, Rebecca held her gun at George's head and shot him, killing him. John was confused, and even more confused when Rebecca held out her hand and she said, "Let me help you up Mentor." John grabbed Rebecca's hand and said, "What's going on?"

"We've decided to rebel against the Brotherhood of Steel." Said one of the knights. Zoe then said, "When George took off with you, these knights hurried us into an alley way and told us that they were part of a rebellion against Elder Torres." John then looked at Rebecca and said, "You joined a rebellion?" one Knight then took off his Helmet and said, "You're talking to our leader." John looked at the Knight and he recognized him and said, "Henry… you're alive." Henry then stepped forward, knelt and said, "Yes Mentor, I survived." John then said, "I'm so sorry that I left you that day." Zoe then said, "Can you please explain to us what's going on with these two calling you Mentor?" Rebecca then said, "You didn't tell them?" John looked at his former Pupil turned rebel leader, then at the group he was traveling with and said, "Right after the Raiders took over New Anderson, I stumbled across a Brotherhood of Steel squad and they came under attack by a Deathclaw. I took my dad's old Knife, hopped on the Deathclaw and stabbed it in the head. That was the Behemoth sized Deathclaw I told you about Zoe. The Knight in charge said that I had potential and offered me to join. I did and I became a Squire, worked my way up through the Ranks. That's when they gave me the Rank of Paladin. I was honored to have that roll. One night, my squad were stationed at a camp and we were on Patrol along the camp's border, Henry and Rebecca were in my squad as Aspirants, we were in the dark and we saw two knights taking crates from the Camp's Ammunition's storage. We told them to halt. But they open fired at us. We won the battle, we thought we lost Henry in the process because we were near a cliff and he fell, but we were blamed because the two knights were the advisers for the camps Paladin, who was George. He told Elder Torres that we attacked the two knights, and he believed him. As a rank lower than Knight, Rebecca and the rest of my squad weren't going to get in trouble, but I was. I told Rebecca to watch the squad while I was gone and on the night before my hearing, I took out the knight on Patrol and ran. I never looked back since." Claire then asked, "Why didn't you tell me, or any of us?" John then said, "It was a part of my past that I hoped didn't come back to bite me in the butt, but I was wrong. I'm sorry for not telling you guys." Frank then said, "It's alright, we all have demons we don't want resurrected." Richard Nodded his head and said, "Back west, I accidentally shot my best friend and people thought I shot him because he took my wife from me." Rebecca then said, "I was an outcast in my vault, for trying to make a peaceful gathering and I punched a vault- Security guard, people saw me as a Hypocrite." Claire then said, "If we're being honest, I may have taken a few caps from John's bag." John then grabbed his bag, found his Cap sack, and found out that a few caps were missing. John then looked at Claire and asked, "What did you do with the caps?" Claire reached into her Bag and pulled out a scarf and said, "I got this for you as payment for getting me to Calhoun Falls." John walked over, took the scarf and said, "Thank you Claire, I really appreciate this." Claire smiled and Rebecca said, "Hate to end this happy moment, but we need to go." John nodded his head said, "Lead the way commander." Rebecca smiled and she, along with Henry and the other knights, led John's group to a gap in the wall that was blocked off from the outside and Rebecca got out of her Power Armor and said, "Head Straight from this hole, that's where two Aspirants left the Power Armor you can here with, along with your weapons." John then said, "Rebecca, Henry, what you two are doing, I proud of you both." Henry then said after getting out of his own Power Armor, "You taught us well then Mentor. Ad Fratrum Steel de Victoria." John then said, "To Victory over the Brotherhood of Steel, I agree." The three then shared an embrace before John went through the hole. Rebecca then told John, "Stay out of the Spot lights, they'll sound the alarms." John nodded his head and he led his group to safety away from the settlement.

After dodging all the Spot lights, John and his group got to the Power Armor and their weapons. John then looked back at the settlement and said, "I make this promise now, that I will return and defeat Elder Torres and free this settlement from his control, along with any settlement flying the Brotherhood of Steel's Banner." Claire then said, "Come on John, we need to go." John looked at Claire, then at the settle they escaped from and said, "Right, Let's go." John and his small Group then walked off to get as far away from the settlement and more importantly, the Brotherhood of Steel.

A few days after they escaped the Brotherhood of Steel, John's group traveled east and they reached a pre-war Town. John saw the Town's name on the sign read, "Welcome to the City of Greenwood." But the word Greenwood was crossed out and replaced with the words, "Paradise City, all trade is welcomed." John then said, "Let's look around and see what we can trade." Everyone nodded their heads and they all walked into Paradise City. When they arrived, they saw the people in the city were going about their business. Just then, two people on Motor Cycles stopped in front of them. The riders got off and one man said, "Identifications please?" John then said, "We don't have anything to identifications, we just got into town." The other man said, "Really, then you must have heard our Radio transmission urging people from all over the Wasteland to come to our great City." The First man then said, "My name's Officer Henderson, this is Officer Carter, welcome to Paradise City." John bowed slightly and said, "Of course, we just need some supplies and we'll be on our way." Officer Henderson then said, "Of course, but first, you must try Paradise City's Famous Paradise Smoothie." Claire then said, "I am kind of thirsty." John then said, "Anyone else want a smoothie?" Richard said he would have one, along with Zoe and Tommy, Frank then said, "I'm not really thirsty for a Smoothie." John then looked back at Officer Henderson and Officer Carter and said, "Four Smoothies please." Zoe then asked John, "Why won't you get one John?" John looked at her and said, "We came here to get supplies, the more people doing that, the more supplies we get." Zoe then said, "Okay." Officer Henderson then said, "Follow us you four and we'll lead you to the shop where you can get the Smoothies, they'll be on the house." Officer Henderson and Officer Carter then led Zoe, Richard, Claire, and Tommy to the Smoothie shack, leaving John and Frank to get supplies. Frank then said, "There was another reason for you not getting a smoothie, wasn't there?" John nodded his head and said, "I've been traveling the Wasteland for quite some time to see that something is wrong with the People here." Frank nodded his head and said, "Yeah, I've seen it too, and I'm over two hundred years old. Like why are all the People wearing sunglasses when the sun isn't even out." John nodded his head and said, "Let's just get the supplies we need and get ready to leave." Frank nodded his head and the two made their way to the Market.

Meanwhile with the rest of the group, they all received their Smoothies. Officer Henderson then said, "Well, drink up." Zoe, Tommy, Richard, and Claire all drank their smoothies. After they were done they all said, "Another Smoothie Please." The Smoothie Operator then said, "Of course, coming right up. You can leave now Officer Henderson, I'll watch them." Officer Henderson nodded his head and he left the stand. Back with John and Frank, they just arrived at the Market to do some trading. John saw the ammunition shop, walked over to the stand and said, "Do you have any Fusion Cores for sale?" the shop keep then said, "Of course, one moment." The Shop keep then went into the back and when he return, he brought out a crate of Fusion Cores. He then said, "Take as many as you like, they go for 25 Caps." John looked at the Sales person and said, "25 Caps? Are they severely depleted?" The man shook his head and said, "No, no, we have a whole bunch of them in stock, that's why they're so cheap." John then said, "Really, let me see." The man said sure and led John into the back where John saw 20 crates of Fusion Cells. John then asked, "Why are all of these crates here?" The man then said, "A prewar transport truck was in the middle of the road you came through and it had all of these crates." John then scanned all of the Fusion Cells and saw that they were all at full power. John then asked the man, "How much for a crate?" The man then said, "Oh, I was selling you the crate for 25 Caps, Each crate has 25 fusion Cells in it." The man then said, "Have you tried Paradise City's famous Paradise smoothie?" John then said, "No not really." The man then gave John a serious look and said, "The price is now 100 Caps for a crate." John was shocked to see how his attitude changed so quickly and John said, "I'll just be 8 Fusion Cells.

"In that case, that will be 32 Caps, is that all you're buying?" John nodded his head and they went outside to make the trade. After the trade was complete, John scanned for Frank, and he saw Frank on the ground. John then ran over to him and helped him up. John then asked Frank, "What happened to you Frank?" Frank then said, "I was minding my own business when two people asked me if I tried the smoothies here. When I told them no, they beat the living shit out of me and left me here to die." John then pulled out a Stimpack and stuck it in Frank's arm. John then said, "This place is really starting to freak me out, the ammunition guy was selling a crate of 25 Fusion cells for 25 caps. He then asked me if I tried their Smoothies. When I said no, he raised the price to 100 caps for the whole crate, so I decided to buy 8 fusion cells." Frank then said, now being able to stand without support, "This place is starting to give me the creeps, we need to find the others and get out of here." John nodded his head and before they could go, they were stopped by Officer Henderson and Officer Carter.

Officer Henderson said, "You two are under arrest." When John asked Officer Henderson why they were being arrest, Officer Carter said, "For stealing 8 fusion cells from us." John then said, "That's not true, I bought these 8 fusion cells from him, I even requested a receipt, but he didn't give it to me." Officer Henderson then said, "A likely story, but we'll need you two to come with us." John and Frank then held up their Guns and John said, "We're not going anywhere but out of this town with our friends." Just then, John and Frank heard Guns loading behind them, when they looked to see who was behind them, they saw Claire, Richard, Tommy and Zoe, pointing their guns at them. John then asked, "What the Hell are you guys doing?" Claire then said, "Protecting our city." John looked at Claire and saw that her eyes were different from when he first met her, John then turned to Frank and said, "Let's just play along with this and see what's going on." Frank Looked at Richard, whose eyes were just like Claire's, then back at John and nodded his head. John then said, "Alright, since we're out numbered, we'll come quietly." Officer Henderson smiled and said, "Good, now step out of the Power Armor." John did as he was ordered to do and stepped out of the Power Armor. John and frank were then relinquished of all their weapons, which they did. John and Frank were then taken to the Police Station where they were put into the same Cell. As John sat on the cot, Frank leaned against the wall. They then heard a voice said, "Didn't have the Smoothies huh?" when John and Frank looked in the direction where the Voice came from, they saw a woman in a suit sitting in a cell next to them. John got off the Cot, walked over to the wall that the cells shared and said, "Yeah we didn't, but our friends did, what's it to you?" The woman stood up and said, "I used to be the Mayor of Paradise City when a man with a cart came to town and advertised his smoothies, I allowed it at first. But, as more and more people tried it, he gained popularity. He then decided that it was time for a new Mayor. So, with the help of the security guards, he overthrew me and tried to get me to drink the smoothie, but I refused. That's when they threw me in here to make me so thirsty that I would beg for a smoothie, but I haven't broken yet. I have my own clean source of water." John then said, "Our friends drank that Smoothie, he must have put some kind of Mind control ingredient into the smoothies." The Woman then said, "My name is Carly Howerton." John then said, "My name is John Bertrand." Then Frank said, "I'm Frank Fielder."

"Well Gentlemen, I have been composing a plan to free the people from the Smoothie's control." Before the plan could be told, Frank heard a door open and he said, "Someone's Coming." Carly got back into her spot, as did John and Frank. When the door opened, a man in a Prewar Policeman's uniform walked in and he turned on the light. He then walked over to Carly's Cell and said, "Here you go Carly." The man then handed Carly a container of Purified Water. Carly got up, walked over to the man, took the bottle, and said, "Thank you David, I want you to meet my new neighbors." David looked at John and Frank and they saw that his eyes weren't like Claire's eyes and Richard's eyes. John then said, "You didn't have any of the Smoothie did you?" The Policeman shook his head and said, "Few people ever did, but I'm the only Security Officer on the force that hasn't drank that Smoothie yet, the others don't know that I'm not hypnotized, they don't even know they're Hypnotized." John and Frank looked at each other, then at Carly when she said, "Is everything ready?" David nodded his head and said, "Almost, took some convincing, but the others are in." John then asked Carly, "What are you two planning?" Carly walked over to John and said, "David gathered up those who didn't drink that accursed smoothie and are planning to bust me out." John then said, "We want to be freed as well." David then said, "That's not part of the Plan." John then said, "Neither was getting arrested. Look, our friends and your town are hypnotized, I figured that if you help us free our friends, we'll help you free your town." David looked at Carly and she said, "We can use their help." David then looked back at John and Frank and said, "Alright, we're going to bust her out tonight, be ready." John and frank nodded their heads and David said, "I'll be back." David then walked out of the cell room.

As the Day went on, the Mayor of Paradise City looked at his hypnotized citizens and had Zoe, Claire, Richard, and Tommy standing in a row, and they all wore sunglasses. The man then turned around and said, "You four will be excellent slaves, now clean this office." They obeyed and began to clean the Office. The man then called for the Man in Charge of security. He walked in and the Mayor asked him, "What is the status of our prisoners." The man then said, "The two arrivers that didn't drink the Smoothies are in the jail cells. I'm going to deprive them of water to make them want the Smoothies you make." The Mayor then said, "Good Work Officer Henderson, I made a good choice putting you in charge of the security." Officer Henderson took off his sunglasses to reveal that his eyes were Normal. Henderson then said, "Yeah, That former Mayor Carly was a disgrace, she should have never been Mayor." The Mayor then said, "About her, you told me she would want a smoothie after a week, it's been 3 weeks." Henderson then said, "I don't know how she's doing it I made sure that everyone in the Police force got a Smoothie." The Mayor then walked over to the desk and said, "Well Henderson, I'm telling you, one officer didn't drink his smoothie." Henderson then walked over to the table, slammed his hands on the Table and said, "Damn it Roger, I'm telling you, all the officers are under your control." Roger then said, "If so, we'll just have to wait and watch." Henderson nodded his head in agreement. Roger then said, "Until then, you fetch me some Water from near the Police Station." He pointed to Zoe and she obeyed. At the Jail cells, John and Richard were paid a visit by Zoe, who signaled John to head to the cell door and she whispered something into his ear. John smiled and nodded his head. After Zoe left, Frank asked John, "What did she tell you?" John looked at Frank and said, "You'll just have to wait and see my friend."

Later that night, John, Frank, and Carly were in their respective Cells when the door to the room opened and the lights turned on. David and another Person walked in and began to open the cells. Carly then said, "Thank you David, and you Steve." Steve nodded his head and John saw that he wore sun glasses. John then pushed Steve to the wall and took off his glasses, his eyes were normal. John then said, "Sorry, I had to be sure." Steve then said, "It's alright, I would have done the same thing in your shoes." David then said, "I would love to talk more but we need to move now." John nodded his head and asked if they have weapons for him and Frank and David said, "Unfortunately, I don't have the keys to the Armory, the chief has the only set and he's gone home for the night." John then said, "Show me the Armory." David then led John to the Armory as Steve led Carly and Frank to the meeting point for John and David. When they arrived, John saw the lock and said, "No problem, just cover me." John then took out a bobby pin and a Flathead screwdriver and began to fidget with the lock to get it to open while David kept watch. A few seconds later, David heard the Lock on the Armory unlocked and saw John opening the door. David then said, "How did you do that so quickly?" John then said, "My dad taught me to pick locks just in case I needed to get out of a jam." John then turned on the light and saw that the Armory was well stocked with rifles, shotguns, grenades, and even a Gauss Rifle. John picked it up and said, "This bad boy is mine." David then said, "Talk to Carly about that, okay?" John nodded his head and they gathered as much weaponry as they could and made their way to the rendezvous point with Steve, Carly, and Frank. When they got there, Frank Saw them and whispered, "John, David, over here." John and David got to Frank they entered the Building that the others were in.

Inside the building, John saw Steve, Carly, and other civilians. David then said, "We have the weapons." The civilians then walked over to David and John to grab a weapon. Carly walked over as well and said, "You found my Gauss Rifle." John then said, "Yes, I did, do you mind if I use it for the coming attack." Carly nodded her head and said, "I was never much of a good shot." John smiled and said, "I'll make good use for it, do these people know how to shoot?" Carly then said, "They do, I told them to aim for the legs." Frank then said, "Unfortunately ma'am, to keep them from shooting back, you aim for the head." David then said, "These people are our friends and family, we don't want them dead." Then John said, "We're the guests here, so we'll do things you're way." Carly nodded her head and told her people, "We move for the Town Hall." John then said, "Frank and I will cover the rear, don't worry, I'll aim for the Legs." Carly nodded her head, and told her people, "Tonight, we move to free our friends and family from that man's control. But not only do we have our people to liberate, but also the people that these two came with, do not shot to kill them." The civilians nodded their heads and John said, "It's going to be the whole town against us, but not if we go for the head of the snake, this man that brought the smoothies here in the first place." John then looked at Carly and said, "This is your city, you're in charge of this Attack." Carly then loaded her Rifle and said, "Let's go." Carly then lead the small group of Loyalists out of the building, John and Frank covered the rear.

As they made their way up to the Town Hall, John began to notice something. John told Frank, "Something's not right." Frank nodded his head and said, "Look at the store, the sign says opened 24/7, but it's currently closed?" John nodded his head and told Frank to stay in the back. John then walked up to Carly and David and said, "I got a bad feeling about this you two, its two quiet." David then said to Carly, "He's right, I'm getting a bad Vibe from here too." Carly then stopped, causing everyone to stop. It was dead quiet until John heard a gun get loaded and shot into a corner store Window, shooting the person who was about to fire at Carly. John then kicked open and Alleyway gate behind him and said, "INTO THE ALLEY, NOW!" everyone ran into the Alleyway as John, David, and Frank covered them. Suddenly, shots went off behind them, when they looked back, Zoe, Claire, Tommy, and Richard were all standing there, with everyone that ran into the Alleyway dead at their feet, Carly too. Just then, every hypnotized citizen came out of hiding. Henderson then walked forward and said, "Surrender now, you are outnumbered. John looked behind him and saw Zoe, Claire, Tommy, and Richard standing at the Alleyway entrance. John then knew what they were doing, and he said, "Do as he says." David looked at John and said, "WHAT?!" John turned his head slightly to look at David and said, "They have us outnumbered and out gunned, if we try to fight back, we'll be killed in seconds, so for now, let's just lay down our arms." John then placed the Gauss Rifle on the ground, Frank placed his Rifle on the ground, and David looked at Carly and saw her hand slowly move and agreed to drop his weapon. After the hypnotized people took John, Frank, and David away. Zoe, Claire, Richard, and Tommy looked at each other and smiled. Zoe then turned around and said, "You can get up now." The citizens and Carly slowly got up and Carly said, "You were never hypnotized were you?" Zoe then said, "OH yeah we WERE hypnotized, but the guy who gave us the smoothies told Officer Henderson that we were alright and he would watch us. After Henderson left, he gave us the antidote for the smoothies and gave it to us in our second glasses. He then told us to put these in our eyes." Zoe then held her left eye opened and took out a contact lens, showing that her eyes were normal, Claire, Tommy, and Richard did the same thing. Then Claire said, "He told us to keep these in until we were ready to fight against the guy who over threw you with the help of Henderson." Carly then said, "Henderson helped him, that traitor." Tommy then said, "When we saw our friends arguing with Henderson and the other Officer, we had to play our part, so we pretended to be hypnotized and helped take John and Frank prisoner. Later on that day, Roger had Zoe go and fetch him some water from here the Police station where he had John, Frank, and you prisoner." Zoe took over talking and said, "I then snuck into the station, found you guys, and whispered into John's ear that Claire, Tommy, Richard, and I weren't hypnotized and were pretending. I also told John to have you and anyone with you to send you all into this alleyway." Claire then said, "When Roger wasn't looking, I painted the sign you all saw."

"That seriously explain things, but what will we do now?" said Carly. Tommy, Zoe, and Richard Smiled as Claire said, "Now we rescue our friends, defeat this Roger character, and destroy every smoothie here and the recipe to make sure that those accursed Smoothies never get drank again." Carly and the other Civilians smiled. Claire then said, "We can get you into the Town Hall through the secret entrance, let's go." Claire, Zoe, Tommy, and Richard then led Carly and her supporters to the secret entrance. Meanwhile, in the town hall, Roger had John, Frank, and David on their knees and their hands behind their heads. Roger then said, "You should have never tried to escape." Roger then turned to Henderson and said, "Told you one of your officers wasn't hypnotized." Henderson then walked over to David, knelt down and said, "Why David, why didn't you drink the smoothie I got you?" David looked at Henderson through the Sunglasses and said, "Because I wasn't in the mood for a smoothie, now take off those damn sunglasses, I can tell you're not hypnotized." Henderson stayed silent as he took off his sunglasses to show David, John, and Frank that his eyes were normal. Henderson then said, "Happy now?" David's face showed a look of Hatred and said, "No, but I'll be satisfied when I kill you." Henderson chuckled and said, "How, you're under arrest, and I'm chief of Security." John then said, "Soon enough the people will stop drinking that accursed Smoothie." Roger laughed and said, "They'll never stop drinking it, those Sunglasses send a message to all of my slaves that they are thirsty every hour, they then go get a smoothie and that keeps them under my control." Just then, Zoe, Claire, Tommy, Richard entered the room, with several people hiding behind them. Roger then said, "As you can see you two, your friends are wearing the Sunglasses and they are under my control, in fact, they should be getting the messages to buy another smoothie from the store right about…now." Just then, all of the citizens left the Mayor's Office to go by another smoothie he created, except for Zoe, Claire, Tommy, and Richard. Henderson then said, "Shouldn't these four have gone to get a smoothie right now?" Suddenly, Zoe and Claire spun around and pointed their guns at Henderson and Roger while Tommy and Richard got Frank, John, and David untied. Roger then said, "I thought you said that they drank the smoothies." Henderson replied, "They asked for another one, I saw them ask." Zoe then said, "Yeah you saw us order them, but you didn't see the guy make the Smoothie." Tommy then shouted, "Come on in." Just then, Carly and the other civilians walked into the room. Henderson then said, "HOW? I saw you all on the ground dead."

"No, you saw them on the ground." Replied John. Carly then said, "They told us everything." David then spun Carly around and hugged her, which she gratefully returned. When they separated from the hug, Carly turned to John and said, "I'm glad your group came here." John smiled and said, "Not a problem Ma'am, we're glad to have helped you." Roger then said as he was being cuffed, "You good damn outsiders, I should have had you kicked out when I had the chance." Carly then walked over to Roger, slapped him and said, "That's not your Job as of now, we're destroying those accursed Smoothies and your recipe." Carly then turned to Henderson and said, "As for you Henderson, you are to be exiled from Paradise City, and you must never return here." Henderson snarled at Carly before getting punched by David. John then said, "We'll make sure that every last bit of that Smoothie is disposed of." Carly looked at John and said, "Thank you, and you'll have the full support of Paradise City's Security Force." John nodded his head and saw Henderson was wearing a metal Head band on his head. John took it off and said, "I bet this is what he used to control them." John then placed the band on its side and crushed it. John then said, "You won't be controlling them anymore." Roger then snarled at John and said, "It won't matter, I'll just build another one and with my recipe, take over another town. John then said, "Where's the recipe?" Roger smiled and said, "A place you can never get into." John then pulled out his pistol from behind his shirt and Shot Roger in the head. John then said, "Sorry if you wanted him alive." Carly then said, "I was going to ask you to kill him anyway." John smiled and said, "Okay then, now let's get to work fixing this town."

After a few hours of work, everything was back to normal, the city was no longer hypnotized, Henderson was exiled from Paradise City, and the remnants of the Smoothie were destroyed. After the rebuilding of Paradise City was completed, Carly and the city thank John and his group by making them Honorary Citizens. John, back in his Power Armor, told Carly that it wasn't necessary, but David said, "Not true, without you, we wouldn't be free like we are now." Carly then said, "And with that, we present you with a crate of 25 Fusion Cells, free of Charge." The man from the Ammo shop then walked up with a crate of Fusion cells. He then said, "I'm sorry for raising the price on you like that, I hope you know that I didn't mean it." John took the crate and said, "It's alright, your mind wasn't your own." Carly then said, "We've also gathered enough supplies for the three of you to continue surviving." John was confused until Richard said, "Frank, Tommy, and I have decided to stay here." John looked at him and said, "I figured you three would stay here, good luck my friends." Richard, Frank, and Tommy nodded their heads and they walked off the stage. Carly then said, "You can also take the Gauss Rifle, I don't have a use for it." John smiled and thanked Carly for the weapon. John then looked at Claire and Zoe and he said, "Let's get going you guys." Zoe and Claire looked at him and John said to Claire, "I know you didn't asked me to join you all the way to New Charleston, and I hate your Uncle to be very blunt, but I would hate myself if you went on your own the rest of the way." Claire smiled and said, "Okay, let's get going." John smiled, then he turned to Zoe and said, "Do you want to come along Zoe, there might be things you haven't seen in the Vault." Zoe smiled and said, "Sure, let's go." Just as the three of them were heading out, they were stopped by a Local by the name of Lee. Lee said, "If you want to make it to the closest settlement alive, you be in need of my services." John looked at Zoe and Claire, then back at Lee and said, "How much?" Lee told them, "Since you three are Honorary Citizens, my services will be free of Charge." John wasn't sure whether to trust Lee or not, but he never been in this part of the Wasteland so he said, "Alright, you can come along."

"Great, now follow me east to survive." Replied Lee as he began to walk. John then said to himself, "I think I just made a mistake." As the group of four walked, John asked Lee, "Hey Lee, what's your background?" Lee kept walking and he said, "Just trying to survive, same as you." John then saw a mark that he saw once before, on the raiders that attacked his home. John then ran up to him, Grabbed Lee by the arm the Mark was on and demanded, "Tell me where you got that Mark!" Lee managed to get his arm free, looked at the Mark and said, "It was from my old group, I used to be a Raider." John was about to pull out his weapon when Claire stopped him, and she said, "Let's just hear him out." Lee then went on to say, "My Raider group was called the Vicious Coyotes. We may have been a raider group, but I set up one rule that we were to operate by, no Attacking Settlements, only other Raider groups. But my second in command wasn't alright with that, so he challenged me to a duel, I lost and he banished me from the group, I then realized that I've had enough of the Raider life style. So, I ditched my Raider uniform, arrived at Paradise City, and began anew." John then holstered his gun and said, "Well, I figure let you know this now, your raider group attacked my hometown and turned it into a Raider Base." Lee looked at John and said, "I'm sorry, if I had been a better leader, I would have never let that happened." John replied, "It's alright, we can't change what happened in the past, all we can do NOW is look towards the future and hope for a better tomorrow." Lee nodded his head and the four of them continued on their journey. Along the way, they ran across a Radcoon. It stood on its hind Legs and it was six feet tall, just as tall as John. John then said, "Get behind me." Claire, Zoe, and Lee got behind John before the Radcoon moved in to attack. John then swung at the Radcoon, but the Radcoon jumped backwards, causing John to miss. John then told Claire, Zoe, and Lee to head to the nearby Building and wait there for him. Zoe then said, "We're not leaving you here by yourself."

"You're not leaving me, I told you to get into the building so you can fire at the Radcoon." Replied John. Zoe then said oh and led Claire and Lee to the building while John held off the Radcoon. The Radcoon swung At John, but it only scratched the Armor. John then pulled out his knife and said, "Let's dance you over irradiated Fur ball." The Radcoon then attacked John again, but he dodged it and slashed at the Radcoon's Right Eye. The Radcoon lunged at John again, but he dodged it again. The Radcoon then turned its back to the Building Zoe, Claire, and Lee were in, and they opened fire at the Radcoon. Few shots got through the Radcoon's Fur, it turned around and began to charge at the building Zoe, Claire, and Lee were in. But John ran after it and climbing over a Prewar Truck and jumping off it as he said, "Oh no you don't." He grabbed the Radcoon and drove his knife into the Radcoon's head, it struggled for a few moments before it finally died of blood loss. John then pulled out his knife and breathing heavily, he said, "All clear." John then stood up as Zoe, Claire, and Lee walked out of the Building. Lee then said, "I have never seen anyone take down a Radcoon." John then said, "Don't be surprised with me, I've taken down a Deathclaw with a knife to the head, that was before I meant Claire and Zoe, back in my Brotherhood of Steel Days." Lee was shocked to hear John say that he was a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, but wasn't going to asked what happened and he said, "Wow, I didn't see that coming." John then said, "Figured that much, now let's get going, where are we heading Lee. Lee then pulled out a folded piece of Paper and laid it down on the hood of a prewar truck and he said, "Alright, We're here, and according to this big piece of Paper called the Map of South Carolina, the closest prewar town to us a Town that was once called Ninety-Six, and I know that there's a small settlement called Divine not too far from it." John then said, "Where did you even get this?" Lee told John that he got it from an abandoned Office Building. Lee then said, "But this Map of South Carolina has all known spots for any prewar Military Checkpoints." John then said, "Well, looks like there's an old checkpoint near Divine, let's check it out." Claire, Lee, and Zoe nodded their heads and made their way to the prewar town of Ninety-Six.

Meanwhile, back in the Settlement Rebecca and the rebels were in, Rebecca was in their hidden Base when Henry walked in and said, "You okay Boss?" Rebecca looked at Henry and said, "I'm just thinking about our Mentor, that's all." Henry then said, "I've been thinking about him too, is he's okay, is he's alive or dead." Rebecca then looked at Henry and said, "I know, I've asked myself those exact same questions." Henry then said, "Well, I think that we need to leave Marion tonight. Set up a base in a different town." Rebecca nodded her head and said, "Gather the troops, we're going through the Sewers." Henry nodded his head and went to gather all of the Brotherhood of Steel Rebels and prepare them to move them out of the City. Rebecca then said to herself, "I just hope that we can win this fight." Back with John and the others, they just entered the outskirts of Divine. Lee then scanned around and said, "I see the checkpoint, let's go check it out." John then said, "Now hold on, what if there are Raiders hiding to attack us, or maybe even Gunners, I'm going to check it out, the three of you stay here." Lee then said, "Hey now, I'm a former Raider, plus you could use the back up." John looked at Lee and said, "It's because you're a former Raider is why you're staying here." John then walked off to make sure that the checkpoint was clear of any hostiles.

When he arrived, he found the corpse of a Gunner, leaning next to a Barricade. Upon further inspection, John found a note that read, "Divine is too much risky, stay away." John looked around for anyone and looked at the dead gunner and said, "Well buddy, looks like you didn't heed the note." John then saw a pencil in the gunner's right hand. John then made a revelation, the dead Gunner wrote the note. John then came under fire from a sniper in a building that was 8 miles west of the Checkpoint. John took cover behind a prewar APC and pulled out his Gauss rifle and went to the other side of the APC to get a better look at the building he was getting shot at from. John then said to himself, "Damn, It's too far for me to reach with my Gauss Rifle from here, I need to hit something that can cover my approach." John began scan the Area in front of him when he heard a gun loading a bullet into the chamber behind him. John then heard a voice say, "Drop your weapon and stand up." John then realized that he recognized the voice, but he did as he was told, he dropped his Gauss Rifle and stood up slowly. The voice then said, "Turn around." John slowly turned around to see a woman standing about 4 feet away. John then said, "Hyra…" The woman was shocked and asked John, "How the hell do you know my name." John then stepped out of the Power Armor and came into view of Hyra. John then said, "Because it's me, John." Hyra was shocked to see John, but she dropped her weapon, ran into John's arms and she began to cry into his shoulder. After she was done crying, she looked at John and said, "I've missed you so much." John replied, "I've missed you too my love." The two then shared a kiss and were liked that until Zoe, Claire, and Lee walked up to them. Zoe cleared her throat, causing John and Violet to look at them. John then said, "I thought I told you three to stay up there."

"Well, we heard shots and came to help, who's she?" said Claire. John then looked at Violet, then at his group and said, "This is Hyra and she's my girlfriend who I thought was killed when my hometown was taken over." Hyra then said, "In all honesty, I thought you were killed too." John then said, "Well, we have some catching up to do." Hyra nodded her head and said, "You know we do, I was without you so years, but I never lost hope." John smiled and Kiss Hyra again. John then said, "Do you have a camp nearby?" Hyra then told John and his group that they were welcomed in Divine. John smiled and said, "Well, let's get going team." Zoe, Claire, and Lee nodded their heads and followed the reunited couple into the Town of Divine.


	2. Chapter 2

When the group arrived at Divine, the guards allowed them inside and they opened the gate into Divine. As they entered, the Mayor walked up to them and said, "Welcome to Divine, I'm Mayor Rachel Dean." Rachel extended her hand as a friendly Gesture, and John shook her hand and said, "Greetings Mayor Dean, my name is John, and these are my companions, the little girl is Claire Brown, the woman in the vault suit wearing gunner Armor is Ayana Batchelder, but we call her Zoe, and the man is Lee." Mayor Dean then said, "Well John, may I offer you a place to stay in our fine community." John then said, "I appreciate the offer, but we need to get Claire to New Charleston, her parents were killed and we need to get her to her uncle there." Mayor Dean then said, "In that case, you must stay in Divine for the night, you may get more supplies for your journey across the wasteland." John thanked Mayor Dean and asked Mayor Dean, "If you would let me I would very much like to get my power armor back, Hyra kind of made me get out of it at an old Military Checkpoint." Mayor Dean nodded her head and said, "Of course, I'll have two guards escort you to your power armor." Two guards then took a step forward, John noted that they were both female. John then noted that everyone in Divine was a female. John then said, "I hate to get you ticked, but where are all the men?" Mayor Dean replied, "Unfortunately, the last man died from Raiders a few days ago when they attacked us." Then John said, "So no boy kids?" Mayor dean shook her head and said, "Unfortunately, all the men were killed by Raiders that have harassed us, they're holding up in an old motel north of here, if you can clear the raiders there, we'll give you extra supplies." John looked at Zoe, Claire, and Lee, then back at Mayor Dean and he said, "Okay, we'll check the Motel out, after I get my power Armor back." Mayor Dean nodded her head and said, "Of course." John then looked at his group and said, "You guys stay here, I will be right back." John's group nodded their heads and John walked towards the exit with the two guards and as he passed Lee, John whispered, "Watch these girls, and make sure Zoe and Claire stay within your eyesight." Lee nodded his head and John left Divine with the two female guards. On the way back to get his Power Armor, John said, "So how many Raiders have attacked Divine?" one of the guards by the name of Frances said, "They have about 2 dozen raiders in their group." John nodded his head and said, "I see, are they heavily armed?" The other guard by name of Stephanie said, "They have Pipe Pistols, old Combat Shotguns, and a few assault rifles." John nodded his head again and said, "I see, the reason I'm asking is because I need to get all the facts about these raiders before I can create some kind of plan. Tell me, is what Mayor Dean said true, about the group of raiders killing all the men?"

Both Frances and Stephanie were quiet for a few moments before Frances said, "Well, they thought that the men would only be a problem." John made a mental note of that and they arrived at John's Power Armor and he got back into it. John then walked up to the two guards and said, "Now before we head back, I have one question for the two of you?" John then grabbed both girls by their throats and lifted them into the air. John then said, "What kind of a fool do you take me for?" Frances said that they didn't know what he was talking about, until John said, "Raiders don't just kill the men of a settlement, I've seen settlements wiped out by raiders, everyone was killed. Every man, woman, and child, killed, raiders don't just kill the men and leave the women, now tell me what is going on in Divine." Both Frances and Stephanie were silent until John shouted, "NOW!" that caused Stephanie to start crying and she said, "Please don't kill us, I'll tell you, I'll tell you." John then released Stephanie and she said, "There were men in divine, but a few months ago, Mayor Dean comes to town and says that she needs help, her little boy was captured by the Raiders at the Motel, said that there was about 2 dozen of them. We had a town meeting to discuss on what to do, she suggested that all the men go and attack the raiders to get her boy back, everyone agreed and they left to attack them, they never came back. Days went by and they still didn't come back. Then Mayor Dean said that she would find out what happened and walked towards the Motel. An hour later, she came back, saying that the men were all killed and she proclaimed herself Mayor of the town, one person objected, but she just killed her. After that, no one wanted to object, in fear of being killed." John looked at Frances and asked her, "Is this true?" and Frances nodded her head and John let her go as well. Frances then said, "We were too scared to do anything, we didn't want to die, and we didn't know how to fight, but Mayor Dean taught us how to shoot, and we've done well in the most recent Raider attacks." John asked Stephanie and Frances if they ever wanted to know what might have truly happened to all of the men, and Frances said, "We have, some of the girls went to find out, they never came back either. Mayor Dean then told us to stop trying to find out what happened to those girls and the men."

"That Mayor Dean seems more like a dictator than a Mayor." John said to Frances and Stephanie, he then said, "Alright, you will not tell Mayor Dean what I did, I'll deal with her after my group deals with the Raiders." Stephanie and Frances nodded their heads and the three of them headed back to Divine. Back in Divine, Lee was leaning against a Post when a little girl walked up to him and gave him a flower. Lee smiled and took the flower. Zoey and Claire walked up to Lee and said, "You wanted to talk to us?" and the little girl that gave Lee the Flower left and Lee said, "I've been thinking about what Mayor Dean said, why would Raiders just kill the men and not the women and children." Before Zoey or Claire could say anything, John came back and called them over to him as Stephanie and Frances walked off. John then told Zoey, Claire and Lee, "We're going to scout out the Motel before we make any plans. However, I just found out that all the men in this settlement went there and never came back, meaning that they were either slaughtered, or betrayed." Lee then said, "How can you be sure?" and John said, "I'm sorry guys, but I can't tell you yet, just to be safe, let's get going to the motel." Just as John and his group were about to leave, Mayor Dean and Hyra walked up to them and Mayor Dean said, "Mind if I accompany you, I want those raiders dead." John then said, "No thanks Mayor Dean, we've handled Raiders with just the four of us before, we're going to scout them out first before we come up with a plan, but if you told me how many Raiders there are and how armed they are, I can come up with a plan now." Mayor Dean nodded her head and said, "About two dozen, armed with heavy weapons." John nodded his head and he said, "Well, I have a plan now, we'll be back."

"But I really insist I come with you." Mayor Dean said to John and he looked back and said, "No." John then led Lee, Zoey, and Claire out of Divine, with Hyra right behind them. About half way there, John stopped and said, "Did Mayor Dean send you out here Hyra, or did you follow us on your own." John looked behind him and saw Hyra walk out from behind a building corner and she said, "I followed you by my choice." John then said, "Well then, come here so I can tell you what I found out about Mayor Dean."

After Hyra got to the group of four, John said, "The two guards that came with me, Stephanie and Frances, they told me that Mayor Dean arrived in town and said that her son was captured by Raiders that were held up in the motel we're heading to." Hyra gave a look of confusion and she said, "That's strange, Mayor Dean told me that she had no family." John nodded her head and said, "Stephanie and Frances also told me that she led the men to get her son back, only she came back and said that all the men were killed. Some women went to find out what happened to them, they never came back as well, Mayor Dean then declared herself Mayor, when one woman refused, she was killed." Lee then said, "Is that why you told me to watch them?" John nodded his head and said, "I think there's more to divine than meets the eye, but let's head to the Motel anyway, maybe we can find the answers there." Lee, Claire, Zoey, and Hyra nodded their heads and the group continued walking towards the motel. Along the way, John was leading the group when they heard a voice coming from behind. After turning around, they saw Frances and Stephanie running towards them. When they got to the group, Frances said, "Mayor Dean said that she needed to do something and we saw her walked into her office. A little while later, we saw her exit the back and climb the fence, we think she might be warning the raiders at the Motel, we came to warn you." Hyra then said, "Why would Mayor Dean warn the Raiders we were coming?" and John said, "I have a theory, but I have to be sure before I make accusations. Let's continue towards the Motel." Lee, Zoe, Claire, Hyra, Frances, and Stephanie nodded their heads and walked to the motel.

After arriving at the Motel, John took out a scope and said, "Looks like Mayor Dean was right about the number, I count about two dozen raiders and…I knew it." When Hyra asked what John meant, he handed Hyra the scope and told her to look towards a bench. When she did, she saw Mayor Dean. Hyra then said, "That Bitch, she's working with the Raiders." John nodded his head as Hyra handed Francis the scope and he said, "I think that she led the men into a trap, and told the Raiders about the women that came here to find out what happened to the men." Lee then took out binoculars from his bag and looked at the Raiders. Lee then said, "I know those guys, call themselves The Bronze Lions, because their leader had a bronze Lion's head around his neck, calls himself Alpha." Then Stephanie said, "I saw a guy with the thing you just mention, he's talking to the Mayor right now." John asked for his scope back and Stephanie handed it back to him and when he looked through it, he saw who Stephanie was talking about. John then put his Power Armor head on and looked through the scope again and with his helmet on, got a scan of the person Mayor Dean was talking too. John then said, "Well, he's definitely not a human." Then Zoe said, "He doesn't look like a ghoul?"

"That's because he's a Synth, not a ghoul." Replied John. Everyone with him looked at John with a confused look until he said, "This helmet was apparently customized to detect any synths in a settlement. The brotherhood of steel, yes I was a part of it, created a prototype of X-01 power armor, like…" John stopped talking and backed up and looked down at his armor and said, "Like this one." Zoe stood up and said, "What are you saying John?" and John looked at her and said, "I think this was my original X-01 power armor." When Claire asked John what he meant, John said, "When I reached Paladin, I got a special type of Power Armor, it was a complete set of X-01 power armor with a helmet that was customized just like this…." John then took the helmet off and looked at the back of the helmet on the inside and saw words were etched into the inside of it and the words were, "Libertatem liberam non est, suus 'pretium est in sanguinem." John was speechless as Claire took his helmet and asked, "What is this gibberish?" and John said, "Libertatem liberam non est, suus 'pretium est in sanguinem. It's Latin, for 'Freedom is never free, it's paid in blood' I etched that into my helmet with a laser scalpel when I first got my set of Power Armor. That son of a bitch let someone else in my Power Armor, next time I see him, I'm blowing his brains out." Hyra then walked over to John and asked him to calm down, and John breathed a sigh of relief and thanked Hyra for calming him down. John then said, "Okay, now I have a plan to deal with those Raiders." Hyra and the others nodded their heads and began to come up with a new plan.

After a while, John walked into the Motel area and a dozen Raiders popped out of hiding with Mayor Dean being amongst them. John raised his hands and the leader popped out and said, "I honestly thought there would have been more." And John said, "Well, I decided to tell the others to take this little girl in my group to new Charleston." Mayor Dean took a step forward and said, "That's not true, I saw your entire group head this way." John then looked at Mayor Dean and said, "Well you told this synth buddy of yours the wrong information." the Leader of the Raiders then asked John, "What are you talking about, I'm no Synth." John chuckled before he said, "Is that what you want these fools to think. You want them to think that you're just like one of them, a human. I know what you are, you are nothing but a pathetic piece of Machine, a synth." The leader then ran at John, who grabbed him by the face and said, "NOW!" Just then, bullets went flying as Raiders were killed in a cross fire from Lee, Zoe, Claire on one side, and Hyra, Stephanie and Frances on the other. As Raiders went down, John threw the leader of the group at Mayor Dean before he took out some Raiders who charged at him as he pulled his Gauss Rifle and fired at shooters on the second floor of the motel.

"Move up!" said John as he kicked another Raider and everyone moved up to finish the raiders off, leaving only the raider leader and Mayor Dean with Claire, Zoe, Lee, Hyra, Stephanie, and Frances. John knelt and tore off an arm of the Raider leader and everyone saw sparks fly out of the torn area. The Raider leader then said, "Impossible, I can't be a synth, but the proof's right in front of me." John nodded his head and looked at Mayor Dean and said, "Why did you do it?" and Mayor Dean said, "Because men are the reason the world is what it is now. I swore that I would get revenge on men for what they did to our country." John then said, "that was over 200 years ago, you can't kill men for what people did over two centuries ago. You led people to their deaths and murdered someone for being against you, you put the town of Divine in a state of fear." John then grabbed Mayor Dean by the shirt, lifted her up and said, "Did you make a deal with these Raiders, to give them something to keep Divine safe?" Mayor dean nodded her head and when John asked what, she said, "Women slaves." everyone was shocked to hear that, and Hyra said, "Those women didn't come here just to see what happened to the men?" and Mayor Dean shook her head and said, "They came here to walk into a trap and sold into slavery." Stephanie and Frances were shocked, both of them lost a friend to Mayor Dean, Ginny, a childhood friend they grew up with, disappeared and Mayor dean told them that she saw Ginny head to the Motel. Stephanie pointed her gun at Mayor Dean's left leg and shouted, "Is that what happened to Ginny?! Did you send her here to be thrown into slavery?"

Mayor Dean nodded her head again, causing Stephanie to shoot her left leg and she screamed in pain. John looked over at Lee, Zoe, and Claire and told them, "Search the area, if these Raiders were also slavers, they would have kept a record of the profits they made." Lee, Zoe, and Claire nodded their heads and began a search of every room as John tended to Mayor Dean's injuries as Stephanie and Frances were shocked and before they could get a word in, John said, "She will receive her punishment at a trial, not by vigilante justice." Stephanie and Frances huffed as Hyra took them to the side and tried to calm them down. Meanwhile, John wrapped Mayor Dean's wound and she said, "Thank you." John looked at Rachel and said, "Don't you dare thank me, you caused pain and suffering for the people in Divine, We'll take you back there and expose you for who you really are, a low life Raider who sells people into slavery." after getting Rachel's leg patched up, John was approached by Claire and Zoe. John saw that Zoe had a book in her hand and when she and Claire got to John and Rachel, Zoe handed the book to John and said, "We found this in the Manager's office, it was labeled Profits, we looked inside it and immediately brought it out after we saw it." John took the book and opened it up to see written in big letters on the first page, "Slave profits." John went on to read the list;

Noah Peterson, Male, age, 29 years old, strong muscles and tall figure, sold to Gunners in Arcadia Lakes for 500 caps.

Carly Harris, female, 27 years old, mother skills and a nice ass, sold to Brick at the old lighthouse near the ruins of Hilton Head for 750 caps.

Dakota Livingston, male, 18 years old, brilliant mind, sold to Elder Torres of the Brotherhood of Steel for 800 caps.

Virginia Claire, female, excellent rape girl Material, sold to gunners in Arcadia Lakes for 1000 caps.

After John saw that last name, John asked Stephanie and Frances, "Was Ginny's last name Claire?" and after he saw Stephanie and Frances nod their heads, John said, "Well, according to this log, she was sold to some Gunners as…" John paused to think of what to say instead of what he saw before he resumed "...Excellent pleasure, to a group of gunners stationed in Arcadia Lakes a day's walk from Divine." John then looked at the Raider Leader and said, "She was sold for a thousand caps." Stephanie stood up quickly and charged at Rachel and the raider Leader, but was stopped by Frances and Hyra and they got her back down as Stephanie shouted, "YOU GOD DAMN MOTHERFUCKERS, I'LL KILL YOU BOTH, YOU FUCKING HEAR ME?! I'LL KILL BOTH YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!" John then told Stephanie, "COOL YOUR JETS STEPHANIE!" John stood up before he told Zoe and Claire to watch them as he went to talk to Stephanie and Frances. When he got to them, John said, "If you two can get a list of names of the people from Divine that have been sold into slavery by Rachel and these raiders, I promise you that I will do everything in my power to bring them home safe and sound." John then handed Stephanie and Frances the book and said, "Look through it, see what names you recognize, make a list, and I will look in the last locations of the people they were sold to and find a way to rescue them." Stephanie and Frances nodded their heads and looked through the book as John and Hyra took their weapons.

Just then, Lee came out of a room in the motel, ran over to John and said, "John, you have to take a look at what I found." John told Hyra to watch Stephanie and Frances and followed Lee into the room he came out of. When he entered the room, John could not believe his eyes. In the room were people chained to the walls, to the ceiling, and in cages. John took one step forward and everyone in cages looked at John and Lee and some begged them to be released, and John said, "Remain calm, we are help to help you all. You will be freed and can go home, but first I want to do a full check up on you all, make sure you're all fit to travel."

John then walked over to the closest prisoner, knelt and did a scan. As he scanned, the prisoner said, "Y...y…. You're with the Brotherhood of Steel." and before anything else was said, John spoke and he said, "I was… part of that accursed organization, but I was accused of a crime I never committed, so I left it and didn't have to deal with it until recently." John finished scanning the person and he said, "You're severely dehydrated." John then pulled out a bottle of fresh water, gave it to the person and said, "Drink it slowly, don't want you to drown after getting water again." John then went through everyone and made sure they were fit to travel, those who were left the motel, those who weren't were taken to Divine and treated by the town doctor. Rachel and the Raider Leader were tried and found guilty of murder and kidnapping and sentence to be killed by hanging for Rachel and decapitation for the Raider Leader. John didn't watch the hanging, neither did Zoe, Claire, or Lee. As the four companions sat down eating their dinner, Hyra, Stephanie, and Frances approached them and asked if they could sit with them. After she sat next to John, Hyra said, "She's gone, and someone else took office as Mayor and promised the people we freed from the Motel that they will always have a home here in Divine. But Frances, Stephanie, and I, we decided to leave Divine and join you." John smiled and kissed Hyra on the lips and said, "Welcome to the group. I believe you heard me when I told Rachel what we needed to do." Hyra nodded her head and said, "Stephanie, Frances, and I are all excellent shots, we can help keep the group safe." John smiled again and said, "Alright, we leave first thing in the morning." John then looked at Stephanie and Frances and said, "If you two ever want to come back here, just let me know and you two can come back." Stephanie and Frances nodded their heads and they all continued eating.

The next day, John and his group got ready to go as Hyra, Stephanie, and Frances packed their things to go with them. At the entrance of Divine, John's group was at the gate when the new mayor approached them, a man named Garfield Jackson, with a crutch under one arm. After he wobbled over to John's group, he said, "I don't know how to thank you all. You saved our town, our lives, and our freedom." John smiled and said, "Don't mention it Mayor Jackson, we're happy to have helped. But we must be on our way now." Mayor Jackson nodded his head and said, "You seven will always have a home here in Divine. But If you need to get more supplies, there's a settlement not too far from here. It's about 3 miles away." John thanked the Mayor and told his group that it was time for them to go and the group set out to the nearby settlement.

Along the way, they encountered a group of soldiers who John didn't recognize. John told his group to take cover as he got out of his power Armor and with his hands in the air, he shouted to the soldiers, "Hey!" and the group of soldiers pointed their weapons at John said, "Woah there gentlemen, I'm not a threat to you." the lead soldier lowered his weapon and said, "Okay, who are you?"

"My name is John Robert Bertrand, former Paladin of the Brotherhood of Steel." the man then got a look of shock , as did the rest of the group of soldiers and the lead soldier said, "I'm Sergeant Owen Johnson, this is Omega Squad of Alpha Company of the first corps of the Army of the Commonwealth Republic, we were looking for the town of Divine." John stepped to the side and said, "Divine is right down the road, why do you need to go to divine?" and Sergeant Johnson said, "We got a report that a Traitor named Rachel Dean, was last seen in that town, we've been on the road for days from the Capital and we are here to arrest her." John then said, "I'm sorry to tell you, but Rachel was tried and found guilty for Slavery and murder and she was killed, the townspeople there hung her." Sergeant Johnson nodded his head and said, "Okay, thank you for taking care of that." Sergeant Johnson then turned to his squad and said, "Alright men, let's get the body and return to our base." Sergeant Johnson's squad nodded their heads and made their way to divine, Passing by Hyra and the others. John then walked back to his Power Armor and got back in it and said, "Alight people, the sun's starting to go down, let's find a place to camp for the night." everyone agreed and searched for an area to make camp and Lee found an old two-story hotel room. Zoe and Claire shared a room, Lee had his own room, Frances and Stephanie shared a room, leaving John and Hyra to share a room.

After assigning a guard shift to everyone, John and Hyra went into their room and got changed into their night clothes. But before they got into the old bed, Hyra said, "John, I was without you for too long, I want you to do me." John was speechless until he walked over to Hyra and began kissing her passionately, his tongue circling her tongue, always keeping contact. ( **A.N.: For those too young to know what's happening, I suggest skipping to the second to next paragraph.** ) John rubbed Hyra's Back and ran his fingers through her hair as he picked her up by her ass and laid her down on the old bed, running his hands all over her Body before he took off her top and bra to reveal her beautiful breasts. John then said, "Just how I remember them." Hyra nodded her head and said, "I let no other man touch them because they're all for you. Go ahead, suck on them." John nodded his head and placed his mouth on one of her nipples and began sucking on it, causing Hyra to moan and run her fingers through John's think hair. She Begged John to suck harder before he spun the two to allow him to be sitting on the bed and Hyra sitting on his lap/ John then took his mouth off the Breast he was sucking on and went to the other as he moved one hand down towards Hyra's most private Are and began fingering her there with one finger causing her to moan even louder. Outside, Claire and Zoe heard Hyra Moan and Claire said, "Sounds like they're having fun." Zoe nodded her head and gave Claire some fresh water. Back in John and Hyra's room, John had taken off his shirt and was kissing Hyra and holding her close to him. John then suggested that they do their favorite position. Hyra Smiled, and they took off their pants, becoming completely naked. John then laid back down on the bed and Hyra got over him and placed her private area over his mouth and grabbed his rod, placed it in her mouth and began bobbing her head up and down as John licked Hyra's private Area. As they went on with their favorite position, john rubbed Hyra's back before she took John's rod out and said, "I want to ride you now my love." John nodded his head and after she got off John, she stood over his rod and slide down it, moaning loudly as she slid down it. Before she started bouncing, Hyra looked at her long-lost love and said, "I've waited for this moment for so long, I want to savor it." Hyra then went up and slowly went down then back up as John's rod got used to the feeling of Hyra's Private area before John suggested that they go faster. Hyra Agreed and increased her speed and John thrust up to help her bounce more. As they bounced or thrust up, the old bed started to shake and as they increased speed, the bed shook more and more until it broke and collapsed, catching the two lovers off guard, after which, they just laughed and continued to bounce and thrust. Hyra was enjoying every moment of it as she leaned forward and kissed John on the lips and he placed his hands on her breasts and squeezed them tightly, remembering all the talk they did of having sex aggressively, he even bit her lower Lip when they kissed. John then flipped them around and Pounded Hyra's Private area as she begged him to go faster. After a while, John told Hyra, "I think I'm about to release it, want it inside." and Hyra said, "Yes, my love, release your seed inside me, get me pregnant. I want to have your children." John nodded his head and kissed Hyra one last time before he released his seed into Hyra's womb. After which he laid onto the bed, Hyra cuddled up next to him and said, "That was... magical." John nodded his head and said, "I agree, I want to do it again sometime." Hyra nodded her head and agreed with her before they kissed passionately again and fell asleep in each other's arms.

Back outside, Zoe and Claire were approached by Frances and Stephanie and Stephanie said, "We heard John and Hyra going at it, sounded pretty aggressive." Zoe nodded her head and said, "Yeah, I guess it's for not being with each other since the fall of New Anderson." Frances then said, "Yeah, Hyra told us about her lover when she first arrived at Divine." Then Zoe said, "John told me about her when I saw him writing in his journal." Then Claire spoke up and said, "John has a journal?" and Zoe nodded her head and said, "Yeah, I saw it the night of the Raider attack to try and get you." Stephanie and Frances were shocked to hear that Raiders tried to get Claire. Zoe then said, "I can tell by your faces that you two are shocked, they only came after her because she 'stole' some caps from them, they were nowhere near the base the Raiders were at so they were fair game.

The next morning, John and Hyra got dressed, kissed each other, and walked out of their room to see Claire, Zoe, Lee, Frances, and Stephanie looking at them. John and Hyra were then approached by Zoe and she said, "So I take it you two had _fun_ , last night?" causing both John and Hyra to blush before John said, "So you guys heard us, huh?" and everyone nodded their heads, causing Hyra to say, "Well, it's been so long since we saw each other, as Stephanie and Frances know, I missed my teddy bear a lot." Zoe then looked at John and said, "Teddy bear?" causing John to say, "I'll explain later, right now, we have to get our things packed and on the road." Hyra rolled her eyes as Zoe Chuckled and everyone got their things together and they started back on the long road to New Charleston.

As they walked, John's group came across a group of raiders heading north and engaged in a fire fight. Hyra, Frances, and Stephanie aimed for Raiders heads as John blasted Raiders to bits with his Gauss Rifle. After he took cover to reload, John said to Lee, "Do you recognize these guys Lee?!" Lee peeked and eye out to see the raiders and a look of shock came onto his face as he took cover again and he told John, "These Raiders, they belonged to the group of Raiders I ran before I was overthrown." John was shocked to hear that the raiders that took over his home were this far out from New Anderson. John then took another shot at a Raider and sent him spinning backwards as his arm flew off and landed with his pipe rifle firing a shot at a fragmentation grenade on another Raider and it went off, killing several raiders in the shrapnel blast. John then placed his Gauss Rifle down and pulled out his pistol and shot three Raiders in the head as he jumped the barrier he was behind and walked forward as he continued shooting at the raiders.

" _Geez, how many Raiders were there when they attacked us?_ " thought John as he shot the last Raider in the head. That was when he realized that it was the raider that got away from him when Zoe stopped him from killing. John then looked back at Zoe and said, "I hope you're happy Zoe. Because of you, we had to deal with more Raiders that belonged to the Group Lee used to command after they attacked us at the station. All because you wanted to let one Raider go!" Hyra, Frances, and Stephanie all looked at Lee with shock and Zoe said, "Okay, so I made a bad call, I'm sorry." John stared at her through his helmet before he said, "Let's get going, we still have a ways to go before we get to the next settlement." Everyone in John's group nodded their heads and they continued on their journey to the nearby settlement.

After walking for what seems like forever, John's group finally reached the settlement Mayor Jackson told them about. It was a small trading settlement with vendors in different locations, a well in the center of the town and an old Mobile home with a sign with the words, "Town hall." just then, a ghoul in old world clothing walked up to them and said in his scratchy voice, "I welcome you all to the town of Shakespearia, my name is Timothy Smith, Mayor of our small trading town." John introduced himself and his companions to Mayor Smith. Mayor Smith then said, "Well then, spend some money at the vendors, walk around. Enjoy your stay in our little town." John thanked the Mayor, looked at his group and said, "only spend caps on what we need to make it to New Charleston, sell anything that can get us caps." the Mayor then said, "Oh, you in need of caps, then i have the perfect job for you and your group." John looked at the Mayor and asked, "What job are you talking about?" and the Mayor said, "Come to my office and I'll explain." John then followed the Mayor to his office as John's group went to the different vendors to get supplies for the journey.


End file.
